Netflix released 3-episode series Angry Young Men featuring Salim-Javed, name that transports number of us back to 1970s and early 1980s where these names were synonymous with excellence. I am writing this before watching the show as I didn’t want the show to alter or influence myth of the two men who defined my cinematic journey during my formative years. Very first film I saw in the theaters was a masterclass by these two men – Sholay, piece of work which if there was an equivalent of the wonders of the world for movies, this movie would have staked claim and maybe even made it in. Artifacts produced by these two which were transformed onto celluloid by the who’s who directors of Hindi Cinema would feature in almost everyone’s top ten lists of the generation.
Their penned output had a profound influence on the clothes I wore, the dialogues I rattled, the hairstyle I tried to follow, and these acts of aping weren’t limited to myself. Countless others were bitten and besotted by their work and characterization of the Angry Young Man they envisioned. Aptly named Vijay for most part, this character personified the plight of common man and how that common man rose from the ashes like Phoenix and overcame the obstacles that the life posed in his pathway, classic tale of reinstilling the faith in common man that you can counter any situation, and someone can be fallen but not out.
Anger was an emotion which was beautifully depicted in their writing and brilliantly portrayed in most cases by Amitabh Bachchan, a man who they recommended to Prakash Mehra after few stalwarts had rejected Zanjeer, blessing in disguise as Hindi cinema got its next superstar even a megastar who regaled us for last five decades and possibly had encouraged in the crop of actors to select acting as the career. Angry young man was the quintessential hero who everyone was rooting for and Salim-Javed’s writing portrayed the fury of the common man and the populace lapped him up and associated themselves with his seething rage against the society.
Salim and Javed separated in their own age by about a decade with Salimsaab being the elder statesman both arrived from Madhya Pradesh – Indore and Bhopal respectively. Salimsaab son of DIG of Police and Javedsaab son of a poet who also was Bollywood lyricist. Salimsaab was better looking and due to his handsome looks, dabbled in a few movies and then a chance encounter with Javedsaab happened and rest as they say was history. They collaborated on 24 movies, 22 of them blockbusters and interestingly, the Netflix show Angry Young Men is the silver jubilee of collaborations for the duo which had number of silver jubilees in their hey days, only two of them which didn’t shine brightly enough. Salim and Javed both had their strong traits and even stronger personalities, yet the collaboration was magic till it lasted, the two strong men fell apart due to the ego issues, but this isn’t about what went wrong instead what went right and makes you wonder what could it have been had they not drifted apart. Guess all good things come to an end and so did this partnership and like many marvels of yesteryears, this magical partnership was something and the art they created was another miss of this new generation.
Nostalgia has been brought back in a rather packaged format by the illustrious children of these angry young men – Farhan and Zoya Akhtar, Javedsaab’ s children who approached the superstar Salman Khan and his siblings – Arbaaz, Sohail, Alvira and Arpita and their respective spouses – yes, they both had two each and strong women in their own field – writer and child artiste Honey Irani (former) and actress par excellence Shabana Azmi for Javedsaab and Salmaji (though a homemaker) and Helen, who made people marvel at her dancing moves. Both the families have gone to have their own independent swim lanes of super success through their own produced and directed and written work that not only had cash registers ringing but also critical and popular acclaim. Salim and Javed’s families stayed apart till 2024 and been 42 years almost when they decided to collaborate to dole out this series which can transcend generations and catapult you into the generation that number of us grew up in, back to the future of sorts.
1970’s and 1980’s defined an era for the Bollywood as India had started to raise their head high again after the wars of 1960’s after the independence in 1947, and these had a profound impact on the youth of the country. 1970’s was when the younger generation of this country wanted a role model who could motivate them and reinforce that not all was lost in their lives and yes, anger was the primary emotion of the protagonist, this was also reinstatement and assurance when the chips could be down, they could have a soothing effect to not give up in life. Yes, some of the measures shown were a bit aggressive but the bigger morale was to lift their spirits.
Salim and Javed both continued to write. Salimsaab for only few movies, one of them being Naam, a Mahesh Bhatt classic. He also wrote a couple of Amitabh Bachchan movies but somehow, they were not successful. Javedsaab switched over to lyrics for the most part and started his lyrical innings with another Amitabh Bachchan movie Silsila. Songs were a major hit and Javedsaab’ s second innings took off and there was no looking back. Salimsaab decided to take it easy and enjoy the family time.
Official last collaboration though both did their parts independently came in 2003 for the movie Baghban, where both Amitabh Bachchan whose speech was written by Javed and Salim who penned his son Salman’s speech. Unfortunately, neither got the official credit. Interestingly, they both were not on speaking terms for almost three decades, despite Salman/Salimsaab living not too far from Farhan Akhtar on Bandra bandstand and came together in 2012 to counter the producer who tried to violate their copy rights and fight this together and that happened for the movie Zanjeer, the one that catapulted Amitabh and where Angry Young Man persona was developed. Poetic justice as the Zanjeer between the two writers that was broken, coincidentally was joined while countering infringement of copyrights for the movie of the same name.
Salim-Javed’s writing not just gave Hindi film industry their megastar Amitabh Bachchan, south India superstar Rajnikanth also could credit some of his earlier hits including his first hit Billa which was inspired by Don, duo’s work. Apart from Hindi movies, they even wrote for two blockbusters in Kannada. Curiously, some of their work Kala Patthar and Shaan which was very good didn’t set box office registers on fire. These two men were the ones who for large part read the pulse of average moviegoer well and doled out stories and screenplays one after another. No other storyteller could stake a claim to belting out hits after hits that resonated so well with the audience and captured the pulse of the audience.
Movies like Zanjeer, Sholay, Deewar, Trishul, Kala Patthar, Shaan, Don, Dostana, Shakti all were made with Amitabh Bachchan in central role, but each looked like they were conceived by different writers as the character sketch was so unique. Not that they just worked with Amitabh but yes, the strongest partnership formed with Amitabh in the protagonist role. There were other great movies like Yaadon ki Baraat and Kranti and even they wrote Mr. India which released post-split that fortunately were born off of the duo’s pen. One look at the number of movies remade and inspired by their original work would make you wonder about the folklore that these movies generated.
Not just in India, they had fans in Simon Beaufoy and Danny Boyle men behind Slumdog Millionaire. They both studied Salim-Javed’s work profusely and interestingly, Deewar was the movie they even borrowed some references from and some of the Slumdog Millionaire story was influenced by Deewar. Not just that two of the characters got tribute from Boyle and Beaufoy as they were called Salim Malik and Javed Khan, clear tribute to their inspiration. Effectively, yet another milestone for the writer duo with Midas touch.
Salim-Javed as the duo received more money as writers than heroes of that time. Never again that has happened, they were the true superstars of that generation. People flocked to the theaters when they saw their names on the billboard and that hasn’t happened since that a particular writer has been the main attraction but then this wasn’t an ordinary set of writers. My heartfelt thanks to Farhan, Zoya, Salman, Arbaz to bring this story to life and a request would be to have a week or two weeks of Salim Javed movie festival in a Mumbai metroplex (I would say all over India) but Mumbai could be a pilot. Time to celebrate them and their double-digit classics. Let the current generation see how the pen was mightier than the sword those days and let them take a peek at the years gone by. Am sure looking at these movies, another gasp that would emote, what if they had stayed together for many more. Maybe God wanted this to end on a high note.
What a tribute to their illustrious parents and the fans of the movies that would be and this would be nostalgia like no other. Salimsaab is 88 so I would rather make this sooner than later. We as fans definitely deserve this déjà vu moment and on the big screen, considering they were the first ones to write Sholay for 70 mm
